It is and has always been just about everyone's concern how to carry the pocket money which is needed when one is out and about. The rise in credit card use has done nothing to end the need to carry pocket money.
The traditional ways of carrying pocket money are often objectionable to many, particularly to those who prefer to dress casually. To some, it is considered an inconvenience to carry a bulky wallet in one's hip pocket and loose change in another pocket, or to carry a voluminous women's pocketbook. Hip pocket wallets have a way of causing wear on the seat of the pants and, to some of ample physical proportions, hip pocket wallets tend to increase their rearward proportions to an unsatisfactory extent.
On the other hand, it is often considered insecure to carry loose bills and coins in one's pockets for obvious reasons. The parents of young children, who often must carry money for school lunches or the like, are concerned about the money falling out of pockets.
For children, and even for adults, it is often desirable to be able to securely carry both coins and bills without the bulkiness and inconvenience of wallets, pocketbooks and the like, while at other times to securely carry just coins or just bills.
Many prior purses addressing some of these problems and needs are complex and expensive.
There is a need for an improved device for carrying pocket money, which is small, non-bulky, may easily be carrid in one's side pocket, may securely carry both coins and bills, and which is simple and inexpensive. Furthermore, there is a need for such a device which may be adaptable for carrying either just coins or just bills at times when such is desirable.
The need for money-carrying devices of all kinds has been addressed by designers and inventors since just about the dawn of history, and the prior art includes purses of many sizes, shapes and types. Some prior art purses and money-carrying devices include those disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: Re. 24,166; 2,298,945; Des. 142,357; Des. 169,825; Des. 170,796; Des. 186,933; 979,806; 1,138,882; 2,904,090; Des. 138,985; and 3,596,757.
A variety of coin purses, money clips, and combinations of the two have been disclosed in the prior art. Examples of combination devices are disclosed in several of the aforementioned patents, but a need remains for an improved small purse for carrying coins and bills.
One particularly advantageous and economic coin purse is the quick-opening and self-closing type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 24,166 (Stiller). The present invention is an improvement on such prior art.
The resilient plastic coin purses of such patent have found wide usage, but their usefulness is limited to carrying of coins. No provision is made for carrying bills or other flat items like credit cards, and thus the resilient plastic coin purse has never been considered and could never be a replacement for the more complex, bulky and cumbersome wallets, purses and pocketbooks of the prior art which are used for such purposes.
Furthermore, the characteristics of extreme deformability and resiliency which allow such simple integrally-formed devices to function so well as coin enclosures also make it quite unlikely and unexpected that such devices could be considered as candidates for combination with apparatus of a type useful for holding bills and the like. Such devices undergo radical deformation in virtually every area and dimension when squeezed for opening, making any combination unlikely.